There’s a lot to like in the state budget, Senate Democratic Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins said, but there are also plenty of other areas where she feels her conference would have pushed the budget further.

A minimum wage hike that takes effect sooner (the current budget does not have the entire increase kick in until the day before 2016) and perhaps money to expand college tuition assistance to undocumented immigrants. And of course, she told me during an interview in her office, “We’re always looking for more school aid.”

“There are certainly good things in the budget, but there are things we’re not that thrilled about,” she said. “Obviously we would have like to have more input into the budget. We have 27 strong Democrats, and in terms of the Senate Democrats and our values, they were not expressed.”

“For example, the minimum wage,” Stewart-Cousins continued. “It would have been more and it would have been sooner … when you look at the OPWDD cuts, we would have liked to see a restoration.”

I asked the leader, who hails from Yonkers, if she would have pushed to roll back the 18-a utility surcharge (as Republicans did) from the governor’s proposed five-year extension or pushed for a rebate check program. She said she would have lowered the income threshold for those rebate checks, which is currently set at $40,000.

There’s no word yet on what the Senate Democrats will do. I don’t expect any big bloc no-votes — most Democrats supported the first few budget bills; Brooklyn Sen. Kevin Parker was a notable exception. In the past, minority party legislators have made their points by offering hostile amendments that are eventually defeated. We’ll see if that happens tonight — Stewart-Cousins wouldn’t say.

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